Reviews tagging 'Torture'

Dune by Frank Herbert

46 reviews

pkm48's review against another edition

dark mysterious reflective slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.0

 I can see why this book gets the praise it does, because it has a well constructed plot with great world-building and elegant writing. However, this book wasn't exactly my cup of tea, and perhaps I also missed the bigger picture of the novel as it extends to the real world which I felt the author was trying to convey.

In general, my biggest struggle was that it was difficult to find a character I could relate to and root for (even Paul). Everyone is pretty much painted as cold and calculating, with fairly little emotional depth to make them more human. The only exceptions to this seemed to be the characters of Lady Jessica and Gurney Halleck (and thus they ended up being my favorite characters). The overall story was gritty, dark, and violent which also added to the struggle of getting through the book. I'm grateful for the glossary at the end of the book because while the writing was easy to follow, the terminology as it relates to the fictional world of Dune was complex and often without any context. 

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Death, Torture, Violence, Murder, and War

Minor: Rape

nils_0's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark emotional hopeful inspiring mysterious relaxing tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

5.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Addiction, Death, Drug use, Genocide, Gun violence, Slavery, Violence, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Child death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Gore, Hate crime, Slavery, Torture, Forced institutionalization, Kidnapping, Pregnancy, and Alcohol

naomi_k's review against another edition

adventurous dark mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Violence, Forced institutionalization, Blood, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and Classism

Moderate: Addiction, Body horror, Torture, Xenophobia, and War

Minor: Adult/minor relationship, Fatphobia, Homophobia, Racism, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, and Religious bigotry

macliffe's review against another edition

adventurous informative inspiring reflective sad tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Character
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

3.75

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Genocide, Torture, Death of parent, and Murder

Moderate: Violence, Medical trauma, and Pregnancy

Minor: Ableism and Racism

mardana's review against another edition

adventurous tense fast-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

3.75

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Addiction, Child death, Death, Drug use, Fatphobia, Genocide, Torture, Violence, Blood, Grief, Cannibalism, Death of parent, Murder, Pregnancy, War, and Injury/Injury detail

Minor: Infidelity, Xenophobia, Kidnapping, Religious bigotry, and Colonisation

thevampiremars's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious reflective tense medium-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? Yes
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.5

“Greatness is a transitory experience. It is never consistent. It depends in part upon the myth-making imagination of humankind. The person who experiences greatness must have a feeling for the myth he is in. He must reflect what is projected upon him. And he must have a strong sense of the sardonic.”

I didn’t really know what to expect going in. I knew it was a science fiction classic featuring a young man called Paul on a desert planet that may or may not be called Dune, and I knew that there were big worms and something to do with spice – a rough outline, nothing more.

I think Dune can best be described as sci-fi for history buffs. It’s full of political intrigue, factions and dynasties, empire building, and so on, but also of note are the incessant spoilers courtesy of Princess Irulan. We are told who these characters are and what they will go on to do, to the extent that it sometimes feels like watching a reenactment of what happened or a dramatisation of a well-known legend rather than events unfolding in real time. At first I was thrown off by it but I adjusted and learnt to accept the writing for what it is instead of getting hung up on what I thought it would be.

Dune is, above all else, a story about expectations and adaptation. Having to adjust my own perspective in response to this curveball of a novel meant there was a neat parallel between my own reading experience and the experiences of the characters on the page having to adjust to life on Arrakis – a good avenue for sympathy and connection.

Paul, our protagonist, is entirely shaped by the expectations placed upon him.

He takes on various names and titles over the course of the story (Duke Paul Atreides, the Kwisatz Haderach, the Lisan al Gaib, Muad’Dib, Usul) and these personas seem to supersede any true sense of self he may have once had. His identity fractures and frays at the climax; not only does he flit back and forth between multiple selves, he also refers to them in the third person and assigns them different motives and personalities (“You have the word of a Duke [...] but Muad’Dib is another matter.”) I don’t know if I’d insist that Paul is plural, but his selfhood is certainly compromised and complicated by all these assumed identities.

Of course, while I’m on the topic of identity, I have to talk about gender – this book is riddled with it. I wouldn’t be the first to point out that women exist in this narrative only as they relate to men, and that they’re portrayed as intuitive, emotional, nurturing, and, above all, passive. I also wouldn’t be the first to note the queerness inherent to the Kwisatz Haderach, a boy with access to powers normally possessed only by women, who can see “both masculine and feminine pasts” – “the male who can truly become one of us.”

Paul has a drug-induced epiphany late in the novel wherein he claims women are givers and men are takers, and that he himself is “the fulcrum” who cannot give without taking nor take without giving.

That moment serves as a good demonstration of Dune’s strange synthesis of essentialism and transgressiveness. And I must say, the fulcrum quote really resonated with me as a genderqueer person.

I’ve talked about Paul, now it’s time to talk about Baron Harkonnen.

He starts off as a vague force of evil that influences the actions of others, only becoming a fully fledged character after the betrayal of Duke Leto.

Herbert could not have made it any clearer that this guy is a villain we’re supposed to loathe. Not only is he a power-hungry capitalist, he’s also an incestuous pedophile and (even worse!) he’s very fat. Yeah, the fatphobia is... not great. And that’s not the only thorny issue here. Dune is inseparable from its Orientalist manner, genocide is treated as set dressing, and eugenics (though criticised) does seem to be granted some legitimacy within the narrative. I don’t want to dwell on these problematic elements but at the same time I can’t disregard them.

Does Dune deserve four and a half stars? Probably not. Am I going to give it four and a half stars anyway? You bet. It’s not beyond criticism (far from it) but I thoroughly enjoyed it nonetheless. I’m curious to see where the story goes from here and I’ve already ordered Dune Messiah, but I won’t be reading it just yet because I have quite a backlog of unread books to work through first. 

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Drug use, Emotional abuse, Fatphobia, Sexism, Torture, Violence, Xenophobia, Blood, Kidnapping, Grief, Death of parent, Murder, and Injury/Injury detail

Moderate: Ableism, Addiction, Body horror, Child abuse, Genocide, Gore, Incest, Misogyny, Pedophilia, Racism, Rape, Sexual content, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Schizophrenia/Psychosis , Pregnancy, Sexual harassment, Colonisation, and War

Minor: Alcoholism, Animal death, Child death, Gun violence, Homophobia, Self harm, Excrement, Islamophobia, Cannibalism, Fire/Fire injury, and Alcohol

nicolepaul_ine's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? It's complicated
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? It's complicated

4.0

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Child death, Death, Death of parent, and War

Moderate: Fatphobia, Pedophilia, Slavery, Torture, and Murder

kristinallard's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? A mix
• Strong character development? Yes
• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? No
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

4.0

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Content Warnings

Minor: Death, Rape, Sexual violence, Slavery, Suicide, Torture, Violence, and War

lanid's review against another edition

adventurous mysterious

• Loveable characters? Yes
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? Yes

5.0

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Content Warnings

Moderate: Genocide, Slavery, Torture, Xenophobia, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and War

melancholymegs's review against another edition

adventurous challenging dark mysterious reflective tense slow-paced

• Plot- or character-driven? Plot
• Strong character development? It's complicated
• Loveable characters? No
• Diverse cast of characters? It's complicated
• Flaws of characters a main focus? No

3.0

I can objectively see why this book is held in such high acclaim. But subjectively my feelings toward this book are pretty neutral.  Will continue the series, but not in the immediate future.

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Content Warnings

Graphic: Death, Racism, Violence, Death of parent, Murder, Colonisation, and War

Moderate: Child death, Drug use, Genocide, Slavery, Torture, and Pregnancy

Minor: Pedophilia, Rape, Sexual content, and Suicide